• Saturday-What'sUP July 16 - 06:49 am

So, I'm wondering how many of you did a double-take, thinking those clouds in the background of these photos from Dan Kemp, were mountains? He said he took these shots from the Houghton RV Park after noticing that the clouds made it look like there were mountains off in the distance, behind Hancock. They had just come back from a visit to Colorado and Dan said he thought they were seeing things or that the Copper Country had moved to Colorado.

Thanks for pointing out the clouds, Dan... makes an ordinary photo - just looking across the canal - somewhat out of the ordinary.

I guess if I didn't know the area I would maybe have thought that, but it didn't even cross my mind that they could be mountains.

They are beautiful!!

Looks like a cool place to live. I agree, the clouds do look like snowcapped mts.

I guess if you squint your eyes and tip your head over to the side one could get mountains out of the photos, but after having lived for so long UP there, your mind gets a picture of what that view is supposed to look like and its hard to deviate from that.

And don't forget to stand on one foot, Capt.;)

I believe that's Mt. Ripley where they have the down hill sking

The thought that popped into my head when I first saw that picture was amazement at the number of trees on that hillside. Recently that scene was shown in an old photo and there were almost no trees there. Some experts claim there are more trees in the USA than 200 years ago. They say that in the old days forest fires (mostly lightening strikes) ended when they ran out of fuel. Today we have roads, plowed fields, and the DNR that keeps them from spreading.

With the need for construction material, fuel, and mine props. The early settlers pretty much consumed every tree within reach. Mining companies sought to buy and hold timber rights nearly as much as mineral rights. In the very earliest days, it was considered a public service to burn off "wild" woodlands so farming could start as one Minesota (sic) Mine pioneer wrote. Since the Copper Country had a longer life than average, labor and transportation eventually made wood too expensive for fuel. With better lake transportation coal took over as fuel and the pressure on the woodlands was reduced. Also concentrating and smelting native copper was a relatively environmentally benign process, so now we have trees again and not the moonscapes found around some of the Western mining districts.
The cloud back does resemble the Front Range in winter.

I always wanted to head UP to The Great Divide.